The Execution
by but i'm a zombie
Summary: The Volturi have killed or brainwashed everyone who opposed them, including the Cullen family. Too bad Caius won't be allowed to live to enjoy it.


It was a beautiful day for an execution.

The sun was shining, the vampires were sparkling, and Caius was being forced to kneel in the mud by members of the guard he'd once commanded. He would have protested this treatment had his tongue not already been torn out and burned to ensure that he could not tell everyone the truth.

He really should have expected this. Aro liked gifted vampires, but Caius was not gifted. Aro liked to pretend to be friendly and harmless to protect his precious reputation, but Caius was unwilling to put on a show to gain people's trust. Caius should have realized it was strange that Aro would want him to be a co-leader of the Volturi. He should have realized that Aro had an ulterior motive. Aro _always _had an ulterior motive.

Everyone's eyes were fixed on Caius and there were looks of condemnation on every face, especially those of the newest guard members: Benjamin, Kate, Zafrina, Alice, Jasper, Charlie, and Aro's abhorrent "guard dogs". They had all lost loved ones in the attacks which had been supported by Aro but were now being blamed on Caius alone.

After the "immortal child" debacle Caius had gleefully set out to punish the Cullens and their supporters, leaving alive only those Aro thought would be useful. It had been so easy. The fools believed Alice's visions would warn them of any threat, despite knowing full well that Aro had read Edward and knew exactly how to get around the visions. Despite knowing that there were three other vision-blocking half-breed girls out there who could easily be enlisted and used to hide the Volturi's decisions from Alice until it was too late.

Caius had wondered exactly how Aro expected to gain the allegiance of those he spared. Almost all of them had ties to some of the dead that were too strong for Chelsea to break. As it turned out, breaking those ties was not necessary-after Chelsea made the spared ones love Aro they would not blame him for the deaths as long as there was someone else they could redirect their anger toward. And apparently _that_ was what Caius was for, _this_ was the fate Aro had always intended for him, to die for Aro if and when Aro needed to do something that would make everyone hate the Volturi.

Edward and Bella had been the first Cullens to die. Aro had reluctantly agreed that their deaths were necessary, their talents too threatening to the Volturi to risk leaving them alive and continuing to try to recruit them. He did still have his own form of telepathy, after all, and he knew from Edward's memories that Bella's father showed signs of a weaker version of his daughter's gift (now that Charlie was an immortal his shield was indeed very much like Bella's, the only difference was that he lacked the secondary shield which had protected her even from those she was protecting - a limitation which Aro actually found extremely helpful).

A member of the guard had kept track of the Cullens' online activity and discovered through the website Facebook that Edward and Bella were going on a second honeymoon to make up for the first one being interrupted by Bella's pregnancy. Caius had ambushed them with several physically strong guards and one of Joham's lovely daughters. Bella was completely useless in a physical fight and the guards killed her almost instantly, Edward's telepathy would have made him a more challenging opponent but after seeing his wife die he didn't bother to fight back.

Without Bella's shield to protect them Caius and the guard had easily defeated the rest of the untalented Cullens and witnesses, just as Aro wanted, then they'd returned home where Caius was informed that he had been abusing his authority and was thereby sentenced to death. When he tried to protest the charges on the grounds that he hadn't done anything Aro hadn't wanted him to do he was tortured and his tongue burned "to put a stop to his slander".

Kneeling in the mud like a supplicant, Caius glared at Aro while Aro listed Caius' crimes. He also glared at the creature standing to Aro's left. Aro _would_ find it amusing to replace Caius with a werewolf, knowing how much he hated them (Caius refused to distinguish between the Quileute shapeshifters and the Children of the Moon; the Quileutes turned into wolves, therefore they were werewolves). And a _female_, the _only _female, an aberration among aberrations. Caius supposed Leah would be the next scapegoat if Aro ever needed another. He found that thought strangely comforting.

Aro finished his speech and came to stand before Caius. "Any last words, brother dear?" he asked, resting a hand on Caius' cheek to hear the words Caius couldn't speak.

Caius hated Aro. He hated Aro more than he had ever hated anyone, and Caius was good at hating people. He hated Aro so hard he almost expected the sheer force of his hate to make Aro's mind self-destruct when Aro touched him but apparently that wasn't possible since Aro just smiled like an idiot. He thanked Caius for his thoughts, then removed his hand and turned away and signalled to Charlie that it was time to perform the execution.

Caius burned.


End file.
